Local government reorganisation and devolution
In December 2024, the government set out plans for how they’d like to move powers from central to local government across England. They call this ‘devolution’.
The government aim to simplify the way local government works by:
- Creating unitary councils: These would be single councils responsible for all local government services within a particular area.
- Ensuring councils are a suitable size to be efficient and effective.
This means all your services are delivered by one council, instead of between the county, city and district and borough councils.
Staffordshire currently has 10 councils – Staffordshire County Council, Stoke on Trent City Council, and our eight district and borough councils.
We are proposing to reorganise into two new councils – East and West Staffordshire.
Proposals
Councils are complicated and important organisations that provide hundreds of different services for people across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
The government has asked councils across the area to consider how they might be run in the future.
These proposals consider:
- How a council (instead of separate county and district councils) could be in charge in a given area. This is called a unitary council.
- The right size for a new council – big enough to work efficiently, save money and cope with financial shocks, but not so big that it becomes unmanageable.
- How council services can run well and be sustainable in the long term – things like social care, waste collection, roads and libraries.
- How local people’s views can help shape services and
- How new council structures could support devolution in the future – that is, bringing more power and funding from Westminster to local areas.